Heavily scratched 'just laid' porcelain floor...advice

[j8yba]

Hi Guys

My tilers finished polishing off my black polished porcelain floor today in my shop, I went down there later on by myself to see how its looking. In the shop there are no lights as yet, but we have a floodlamp which lights the place up.

Upon inspecting the tiles, EVERY single one of them is scratched, theres swirls, lines, scuffs, blemishes, everything!

According to my Dad and the tilers today, whilst in the sunlight they didnt notice anything wrong, obviously Ive been back there tonight with my Dad whilst its dark and with spotlamp and he is gobsmacked!

What the hell has happened? The tilers seemed to know what they were doing, they used LTP grimex to clean, then LTP sealer (although I think they only left the sealer on for a few hours before continuing) They used towels at first for the grimex and first batch of sealer, then some industrial buffer to polish off.

The tilers are nice guys and I appreciate that the tiles were cheap from B&Q and most of them were bowed, but surely the surface shouldnt look as bad as this under light?? Some of the scratches are really bad.

The tiles also are not a real glossy finish, but a dull hazy finish, but i think this is the tile itself.

Ive attached some pictures but the camera hasnt really picked the scale of the scratches up.

IMG_2177.jpg

IMG_2174.jpgIMG_2180.jpgIMG_2179.jpgIf anyone can offer any advice or solutions, im all ears.
Where do I stand on getting this rectified?

[whitebeam]

Have you contacted your tilers concerning this matter...

[Dave]

Hi...

They look like they still have transit wax on them, hence the fine scratches in that ... polished porcs do not scratch that easy, so this is my reasoning for saying that maybe the transit was was not removed correctly..

use ltp grimex neat on one tile in a not so noticeable area and see if t hat makes them look better..

[j8yba]

Hi...

They look like they still have transit wax on them, hence the fine scratches in that ... polished porcs do not scratch that easy, so this is my reasoning for saying that maybe the transit was was not removed correctly..

use ltp grimex neat on one tile in a not so noticeable area and see if t hat makes them look better..

How much elbow grease do you need to apply to get the T/wax off with Grimex? I think they went round with a towel to apply it and wipe it off, nothing technical.

[Sir Ramic]

Find a bad example and try the grimex before going any further. Use soft cloths too.

[Dave]

It needs to be applied liberally and not allowed to dry out, mopped on and left for 15 mins etrc and then agitated and re-applied till it comes off..

it is not a case of wipe on and wipe off... deffo looks like it is still on to me.. and they do shine a lot more than that , hence why i think the transit wax is still there...


Did you get someone from here in the end or not..?

[jay]

Who is the maker of the porc did they come in a plain white box

[widler]

look like b&q 600x600 specials,quite a bad tile and lots of wax

[j8yba]

Yes they're B&Q 500x500, Romsey tiles in a black pack of 4. They're still selling them today.

@Dave, no I found a company local. I'm not going to slag them off as hopefully this can be worked out.

[jay]

Think Dave is on the money here check out the three finger marks at the bottom

[Dave]

I can tell by the haze look on the tile jay..

[widler]

Yes they're B&Q 500x500, Romsey tiles in a black pack of 4. They're still selling them today.

@Dave, no I found a company local. I'm not going to slag them off as hopefully this can be worked out.

aye,the ones i used last year were 600x600 but the same make,they seem to buy large batches every now and again. they do have dull ones and shinier ones,like has been said,loads of wax on these,needs a bit of work to take off

[jay]

I can tell by the haze look on the tile jay..

yeah noticed that thought were the finger marks go across the scratch was a good indication

[Sir Ramic]

This actually highlights the problem as to why you cant just give a m2 rate for every tile being the same. Now you see why certain tiles are more labour intensive.

[CJ]

Also wipe on grimex with one cloth.............and use a different cloth to polish off after leaving to do its job. Change cloths after a couple of wipes as well.

Otherwise all your doing is softening the transit wax, and smearing it about, not cleaning it off.

[j8yba]

thanks guys, ive just been out and brought two of the tiles back home to test your theories. Ill be honest though, these scratches look like theyre there to stay.

[j8yba]

one other thing, on a 55 sqM floor, how much LTP sealer should we have gone through? We bought a 5L tin.

[Bri]

Roughly 20m2, per coat of sealer, per litre. so that tin should cover 100m2 ish.

[ozboz]

Hiya, I have fixed loads of these things, transit wax I found to come off using white spirit and a Bosch buffer, before I grouted. As for the scratching, as we know they shouldnt, but, to my knowledgr thes things are made in China, so maybe there is some fault in the tile body. But if I was the tiler, I take a few off cuts of spares and using different metel instruments see if i can pysically mark the surface, if yes then its a manufacturing issue, if not then the transit wax removal looks like the main contender for the problem. But just because they are cheap from B&Q doesnt always mean they are not very good. I have fixed them for friends and family alike and had no problems, in fact they have been quite good, any way I hope you can sort it out mate , good luck !

[j8yba]

Hi again, well last night i tried my best to remove the transit wax, but i really dont think theres any on there. on the back of the box, the description says these tiles are pre-sealed? but we sealed them anyway.

You can physically scratch/mark the the tile just by dragging a screwdriver over the tile with minimal pressure.

The tilers have been back today and are flumoxed, they've never seen this before and have stressed that it isnt something they have done to the tiles out of the ordinary.

The tilers brought an electrical hand-polisher/buffer with them and some other compounds, which only seemed to leave a dull blemish on the tiles and didnt remove much of the scratch.

Ive been back to B&Q and spoke to the deputy manager who tells me they havent had any of these tiles back, and theyve sold thousands of them, shes going to contact the QC department at Head Office to see what they say.

Im really at a loss with this now, the job has cost me the best part of £2500 and I have a 60sq M floor which was supposed to be a focal point in the shop which now makes my stomach turn everytime i think about it.

[Wingn]

Had a similar problem with black B&Q 600x600 laid in a bathroom. Fitted and grouted them with no problems. Next day the builder rang saying she wasn't paying because the tiles were all scored. Had a look and there were 2-3 short scores side by side all over the tiles. Ended up having to replace 8 tiles in a bathroom with 11 tiles but knew they weren't scraped when I laid them, even though no other trades had been in after me. When I was removing the tiles, I noticed that there were black and white hairs on the floor too, which just happened to be the colour of her dog.

[Dave]

Hi again, well last night i tried my best to remove the transit wax, but i really dont think theres any on there. on the back of the box, the description says these tiles are pre-sealed? but we sealed them anyway.

You can physically scratch/mark the the tile just by dragging a screwdriver over the tile with minimal pressure.

The tilers have been back today and are flumoxed, they've never seen this before and have stressed that it isnt something they have done to the tiles out of the ordinary.

The tilers brought an electrical hand-polisher/buffer with them and some other compounds, which only seemed to leave a dull blemish on the tiles and didnt remove much of the scratch.

Ive been back to B&Q and spoke to the deputy manager who tells me they havent had any of these tiles back, and theyve sold thousands of them, shes going to contact the QC department at Head Office to see what they say.

Im really at a loss with this now, the job has cost me the best part of £2500 and I have a 60sq M floor which was supposed to be a focal point in the shop which now makes my stomach turn everytime i think about it.

See now if you said they were pre-sealed then i would have known there would be no transit wax on them, but wiping with grimex would have affected the pre-seal anyway..

Let us know what B&Q say...

[ozboz]

A product fired as high as this should not really be affected by minimal abrasion, so got to be a manufacturing problem, the only problem ive ever heard B&Q admit to as far as tiles go is the wax removal problem, but , if you take some back to store and demonstrate how easily they are damaged , you may get lucky, after all it is one of the purposes for installing this type of decorative functional cladding to withstand wear and tear above other floor coverings, have a go at them ,

[macten]

Stand in line at the returns desk (usually a long queue ) and kick up a stink - they are usually quite good once you get to the manager or his deputy.

[j8yba]

A product fired as high as this should not really be affected by minimal abrasion, so got to be a manufacturing problem, the only problem ive ever heard B&Q admit to as far as tiles go is the wax removal problem, but , if you take some back to store and demonstrate how easily they are damaged , you may get lucky, after all it is one of the purposes for installing this type of decorative functional cladding to withstand wear and tear above other floor coverings, have a go at them ,

Good idea, whats a good method/tool of showing them what scratches, ie, what shouldnt scratch it if I take one along? Im not sure if taking a screwdriver there and scratching it with that will be as effective as something else?

[j8yba]

Stand in line at the returns desk (usually a long queue ) and kick up a stink - they are usually quite good once you get to the manager or his deputy.

How does this method work if all of these statements are true.. A) I bought them over 3 months ago, and they've been sat under the stairs... b) ive lost the receipt (but paid via debit card) c) they're already laid and grouted, so returning them isnt really an option!

[j8yba]

The sad thing is, we've now laid covering all over the floor whilst the rest of the work is carried out, and we're scared to walk on them in case we scratch them, just from walking?!! Surely this isnt right??

[Sir Ramic]

The sad thing is, we've now laid covering all over the floor whilst the rest of the work is carried out, and we're scared to walk on them in case we scratch them, just from walking?!! Surely this isnt right??

Of course its not right, they are floor tiles and are to get walked on. Dont get fobbed off with things such as " you must have scratched them with your shoes" or " Oh well these are for domestic only as we are a DIY store "

[macten]

How does this method work if all of these statements are true.. A) I bought them over 3 months ago, and they've been sat under the stairs... b) ive lost the receipt (but paid via debit card) c) they're already laid and grouted, so returning them isnt really an option!

A. I've taken goods back that I deemed not fit for purpose 8 months after purchase date
B. The tile is a B&Q tile, this along with credit card statement will suffice
C. Obviously, but you are after some kind of recompense on account of them not being fit for purpose - You must have some spare tiles
or even off cuts to demonstrate how easy they scratch?

Kick up a stink mate and refuse to leave and they will try to sort something - whether their solution is acceptable to you
is a different story but something is better than nothing. If this doesn't work take pictures and send direct to B&Q complaints department along with
any other relevant info.

[steeeevo]

The New tiles say on the box that they are sealed. So maybe when they tried to remove the wax they took the sealer off. Check this photo of the box b&q polished porcelain